Never Let Me Go

I just finished reading Never Let Me Go, and I have to say that it has left me with a very sad and somewhat empty feeling, like the story is somehow unresolved, or should have ended differently. I think I feel this way because of the characters' life purposes that have already been set out for them, and how the characters cannot change what is in store for them.

When I first began reading the book, I was unsure how I would even come to relate with the characters, knowing that they were clones. Like many people in the book, such as Madame and Miss Emily, who have to fight everyday to keep themselves from letting their fears of these clones get the best of them, as well as the general population who views the clones to be inhuman, I wondered if these characters would seem inhuman to me. But as I read more of the book, and became more intrigued with the story, I realize just how good of a job Ishiguro did at making readers connect with these characters, to the point that I found myself no longer differentiating them as "clones", but seeing them as fully human. I think that in this way, Ishiguro challenges the boundaries of how a reader perceives the idea of cloning: although I have trouble understanding the idea of cloning and disagree with it, I found myself feeling for the characters and identifying with many of their experiences. In this way, Ishiguro is perhaps suggesting that there may be no real difference between a clone and a "normal" human being, in terms of what makes someone "human".

What I continually find my mind drifting towards is how the clones had no choice about their future: they attend training, become carers, become donors, and then complete. For the characters, there is nothing else for them. I think that this theme becomes most clear when Tommy refers to him and Kathy as two people in a river: "I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart. That's how I think it is with us. It's a shame, Kath, because we've loved each other our whole lives. But in the end, we can't stay together forever" (p. 259). I find this passage so heartbreaking, to think about how Tommy and Kathy can be in love, but can never fully act on it; they don't get to be together, get married, have a family, even grow old together - and aren't these among many of the future desires couples have when they are in love?(Yes, this might just be the romantic in me speaking).

In addition to being unable to fully share a life with the one they love (one that isn't cut short by donations and completing), the characters are also unable to experience life outside of their predetermined purpose. For these characters, for Kathy and Ruth, and Tommy, they know that once they become donors, they will die. To me, it seems like such an incomplete life - to never get to do or see the things you dream of, like Ruth's dream to work in an office. I think that what really drives this idea of predetermined purpose home, is how there is no possible way in which the clones can defer their training and donations. Miss Emily describes this rumor as simply a hope, something to dream about and be encouraged by, but is nonetheless something that can never happen for the clones. As a result, the clones are constrained and trapped within their purpose, and to me, I think this is the saddest part of the whole book - I often found myself hoping that Kathy and Tommy would get their referral and the book would end there. But I guess the book would not have had the same effect on me if it had.